Impressive start: the Bulldogs are serious contenders for this year's title. Photo: Matt King

The performance of the Canterbury Bulldogs was tremendous. Anyone who saw it now knows this team is a serious contender again for this year's title.

I thought the Parramatta Eels showed great promise.

There have been so many changes to the Manly Sea Eagles line-up during the off-season that they are very much a work in progress. They are going to take some time before things jell but don't write them off just yet.

Let's start with Thursday night's season opener between the Eels and the Broncos.

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Broncos

This was a performance very typical of a Wayne Bennett-coached football team at this stage of the season. No fuss, no fanfare, nothing too elaborate; simply getting the job done.

People have asked me many times over the years why Bennett has been so successful. They are obviously looking for some magic formula to explain why, over such a long period of time, he has been able to stay head and shoulders above the rest.

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I tell these people there is no magic. Is Bennett's success his brilliance? It all actually comes down to his simplicity. He doesn't over complicate things. When you coach or play against a Bennett-coached team, you know exactly what they are going to do. The challenge is trying to stop them from doing it.

Bennett's teams usually have three qualities: great talent, great spirit and great defence. We saw all three of these in their comfortable victory over Parramatta on Thursday night.

The Broncos controlled the ball. For the most part, they controlled when and where they gave the ball to Parramatta. The biggest feature of their victory was outstanding defence. Built on fitness, strength, knowledge and commitment, the Brisbane boys presented a defensive wall that was almost impregnable.

That's all Bennett would have wanted out of the opening 80minutes of the season and it was enough to secure them a comfortable victory.

The Brisbane forwards were outstanding with their energy and commitment. Josh McGuire was solid in his return from a long injury layoff. Adam Blair, Matt Gillett, Alex Glenn, Corey Parker, Jarrod Wallace, Sam Thaiday and Joe Ofahengaue will more than match it with many packs this year.

Brisbane halves Ben Hunt and Anthony Milford were subdued, but diligent. They were content just to do a job and certainly didn't force their hand at any stage. The star of the back line was undoubtedly their big winger Corey Oates. He troubled the Eels with every carry of the ball.

The victory wasn't brilliant by any stretch of the imagination. The Broncos got to the front, opened up a handy lead, then protected their points. If anything, the second half was rather dour and unimaginative. It was anything but entertaining. But we could see from this performance that the cornerstones of their football – attitude and defence – were obviously well in place. It's on these foundations I believe the Broncos will build a great season.

Eels

Not bad, not bad at all.

Not a lot went right for the Parramatta boys in the season opener, but there were some tremendous signs for the future and Eels fans should be optimistic about the season ahead.

It was obviously disappointing that their marquee signing Kieran Foran couldn't make it onto the field. Things got worse when their other senior playmaker, Corey Norman, could not return for the second half after a neck injury. When these two experienced playmakers make it onto the field together, there is no doubt the Parramatta Eels will be a different team.

What I liked about the performance, though, was Parramatta's physical and mental resilience. The players looked fit and strong. There was tremendous energy to everything they did. Their execution was far from perfect and, at times, you could see frustration start to build, but there was a determination to keep on trying.

Out of the game: Corey Norman receives attention after injuring his neck against the Broncos. Photo: Getty Images

Emotionally, they might have lost contact with actually winning the game once both playmakers were out of action, but the setbacks did not affect their attitude or their efforts. That's a great sign. The Eels kept trying on every play, every minute, for the full 80 minutes. If they can maintain this attitude, it will stand them in good stead for the long season ahead.

In the first half, their attacking play tended to be a bit too deep and heading sideways. They seemed obsessed with trying to get around the Bronco's defensive line. This really played into the hands of their opposition.

The positive sign was that, in the second half, they made a real attempt to alter the direction of the play and tried to dig into the Broncos' defence with more direct plays, inside passes and footwork. Such a play almost led to a try by centre Michael Jennings. Had that try been scored, the margin between the two teams at the time would have been reduced to 6points. You never know what can happen from that point.

All in all, I gave the Eels a huge pass mark on this performance and they will be more than competitive as the season progresses. Good times ahead.

Bulldogs

Canterbury fans should be proud of their team. Coach Des Hasler and the players have obviously worked extremely hard during the off-season and they presented themselves in impeccable order for the opening game.

Physically, you could see a real difference in this side, particularly the big players who had tended to carry a lot more weight in previous years.

Many questioned whether the big Bulldogs forwards would cope with the reduction in interchanges introduced this season. Well, they didn't have to wait long for an answer.

From the time the players trotted out onto the field for the pre-match warm-up, you could see this was a different looking group of players. They were hard, fit and ready for action.

The other big change in the Bulldogs was a style of play. I really liked the way the forward pack attacked the advantage line. In previous years, they had tended to amble onto the ball, more conscious of looking for pre-line passes than making big metres.

On Friday night, their focus simply turned to bending the opposition defensive line backwards. They were outstanding.

James Graham, Aidan Tolman, Tony Williams, Josh Jackson, Greg Eastwood, Sam Kasiano, Tim Browne: look at the size and strength of these fellows. I could never understand why in the past they just didn't line up and bully their opposition out of the game every week. After all, that's the Bulldogs way.

Anyway, they got themselves a kill on Friday night and it looked as though they thoroughly enjoyed it. The performance certainly signalled that the Bulldogs' big boys were intent on dominating their opponents this season. It looked good.

The effect of all this, of course, was that it gave their halves the chance to play like real playmakers. All of a sudden Moses Mbye and Josh Reynolds had all this extra time and space in which to operate. They took advantage, too.

Reynolds, in particular, looked more dangerous with ball in hand than he had for a couple of seasons. His persistent cross-field running troubled the Manly defensive line and you always got the sense something was about to happen. That's a good sign.

Like the Broncos, the Bulldogs established a healthy lead, then were content to play the second half simply protecting their points. The defence, discipline and control were exemplary. This was a dominant performance and a clear indication the Bulldogs are a serious contender this year. They can beat any team in the competition.

Sea Eagles

Don't go panicking just yet. It was always going to take time for this new-look Manly side to come together.

The easy thing to do here is to point out all the faults with their performance on Friday night. Anyone can do that.

The right attitude for Manly is to look at this game as a starting point and accept the reality that this is a very new team and there is still plenty of work to do. There are a lot of talented individuals in this line-up. Patience, perseverance and hard work are the key words here.

Before kickoff, I looked at the Manly side and could see up to a dozen personnel and positional changes in this team. They also have a new coach in Trent Barrett who has never coached in the NRL before. That's going to take time to bring together.

In many respects, despite the age and experience of a number of their individuals, Manly can be considered somewhat "immature" simply because they haven't been together long enough.

You can train as often as you like through the off-season, but it's not until you spend time together out on the field that you really start to form the unity and combinations necessary to win consistently at this level.

What made it more difficult for Manly was the fact that they confronted a Bulldogs team, most of whom have been together for a number of seasons under the same wily coach in Hasler.

This is a team that has matured over the years. The players and coach know each other really well. They have worked together for a long time. It makes a huge difference when you're entering a new season.

For Manly to improve in the short term, though, their forwards need to come together a lot better as a unit. A lot better. It's no good trying to sugar-coat the bitter pill. The Bulldogs forward pack dominated them on Friday night and that was pretty much the beginning of the end.

Anyway, things will feel more comfortable when Brett Stewart is back from injury and the players have spent more time playing together.